John Mayer Shows Us Exactly “Where the Light Is”

06Jul

On July 1st, John Mayer released his extended play CD and DVD, Where the Light Is. Basically, this high-quality DVD was a recording of Mayer’s December 8th, 2007 concert at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.

Now, being the Mayer lovah that I am, I downloaded the movie on iTunes and I must say, I LOVE IT. For the life of me, I can’t understand why every artist doesn’t produce a live video of a concert like this.

Johnny Boy starts off with an acoustic set that is simply brilliant in its simplicity. Perhaps my favorite of this set (and any other) is Stop This Train: I really dig the added whistling, as well.

Stop This Train

I really identify with this song. The lyrics really touch on the progression of life and the realization of aging parents and that we are ever closer to there being no buffer between us and death. He touches on that every once in a while you’re all together and everyone is there and it’s all just perfect and you just want to stop time and have it last just a while longer. But, time stops for no-one. Mayer captures it beautifully and runs the gamut of emotion from fear to happiness to contentment.

Another acoustic gem is John’s cover of Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’, when he’s joined by guitarists David Ryan Harris and Robbie McIntosh of The Pretenders, who also has served as a session musician for Sir Paul McCartney. It is fantastic…

Free Fallin”

The cinematography in this film is awesome. There are many great angles including those from in amongst the crowd. This movie really gives you the feel of a concert without the hassle of getting good tickets, parking, fighting the crowds and bad sound. While I try to make several concerts a year, I just can’t make all the ones I’d like to, but putting up $12.99 for a kick ass, high quality, extended set concert that I can watch on my HDTV? Done. I would like to see other artists begin to produce concert movies like CDs, particularly when the concert is as good as this one.

After the acoustic set, John brings on Steve Jordan and Pino Palladino, who are part of the John Mayer Trio to go down and dirty blues and jazz.

Who Did You Think I Was?

He also performs the great Hendrix anthem Bold as Love with the trio with a very heartfelt introduction, as well as some pretty frank dialogue in the middle about living his life and love — that “gotcha back kind of love”

Bold As Love

Lastly, Mayer brings his entire band on to complete the concert with many hits from Continuum and otherwise. Perhaps my favorite is the I’ve Got Dreams to Remember intro into Gravity:

The film/concert is a little over 2.5 hours and is definitely a keeper. Mayer shows his depth of talent and his obvious intelligence and sincerity in his music. To me, Mayer’s viability as a contemporary artist is directly correlated with his ability to evolve and expand his music into various genres and styles and to be “all about the music”.

The CD/DVD live concert release will be a nice tune up to his upcoming CD of new material, which will include All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye. Here is a short sample:

If you’re looking to attend a great concert (over and over again), I strongly recommend purchasing the movie, Where The Light Is. Once again, Johnny Boy does not disappoint.

6 responses to “John Mayer Shows Us Exactly “Where the Light Is””

When you click the link on Possibly Related Posts about JM’s Shocking Confessions, you get a report of John’s St. Louis concert jesting and his apparent middle finger to the press…

He’s 33% complete in building a time machine. He weighed 400 lbs. at age 12.
He wrote the lyrics to Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” at age 9.
He killed animals as a child and used their teeth as necklaces.

Perhaps even cooler and funnier than his wit was the fact that he invited people to text message him (it was at the Verizon Theater, after all) and messages would be flashed on the big screen. Best one: “John, I’m pregnant. — Jen”

True. Yet he is so NOT full of himself. The only thing that made my butt twitch a little is that there are pieces in the movie of him driving his totally NOICE Mercedes around with a little toy dog on his lap.

Now, I’m not sure if that’s for real or if he’s just messin’ with people to get a reaction. He is very wily like dat…which I also dig about the dude.

Regardless of all of his mind games, i.e., “I fear the color green”, he gets a pass from almost everyone because he is just dadgum talented. In the film, he talks on stage about music from his room, where he figures that he spent about 8 solid years perfecting his guitar playing. That’s just dedicated and obcessed with the music. Whether he is or not, he certainly comes off as sincere and an “every” guy. THAT, keeps peoples ears open for the next evolution.